Donald Trump 'Greatly Honored' By Putin Praise

A little more than five months ago I wrote here that Donald Trump – quite apart from his fellow GOP nomination seekers – would likely be a good partner for Vladimir Putin, should he be elected the next president of the United States.

That was just over three weeks after Trump’s announcement when he was almost universally ridiculed as a clown and taken seriously by virtually no one other than himself.

Trump kicked off his already historic presidential media blitz on Bill O’Reilly’s ‘No Spin Zone’ during which he said he felt he would have a great relationship with Putin.

Never wavering from that position – though certainly not because of it – Trump has soared to the top of the Republican field, even while openly supporting Russia’s anti-terror operation in Syria.

Putin, who is usually loath to comment on political processes in other countries, gave voice to his thoughts on Mr. Trump at his end-of-the-year Q&A session with reporters this week in Moscow.

‘He is the absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level relations, a deeper level of relations with Russia’, Putin said. ‘How can we not welcome that? Of course, we welcome it’.

Trump was quick to respond to the compliment.

‘It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond’, Mr. Trump said in a statement.

‘I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect’, said the Republican frontrunner.

The brief exchange is clear proof that Trump was spot on about his assumption of Putin. What is more is how much weightier the comments are today than they were last summer.

Whereas Trump was clearly a longshot at best for the presidency just a few short months ago, the race is basically his to lose at this point.

If he can finish it out and take the prize, the world could see something very rare – two extremely powerful and capable leaders of global superpowers actually working together to bring peace and order to the world. It’s hard to remember a time when the world was more in need of just that.

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